Managing Teams

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Effective teamwork is an essential element of modern management practices such as empowerment, quality circles, total quality management and continuous improvement, and change management. The aim of this title is to introduce you to some basic concepts of teamwork.

Target Audience

Anybody wanting to develop skills and knowledge in a particular management field at postgraduate or post experience level.

Objectives

Build an effective team
Establish effective team-working
Lead the team effectively
Evaluate team performance

List of Contents

The team approach, The importance of teams, Types of team,
Hierarchical teams, Expert teams, Teams in your organisation
Project teams, Multidisciplinary teams, Why individuals join groups, Why managers establish groups, Team functions
The limitations of teamwork, Characteristics of effective teamwork, The qualities of a successful team, Characteristics of an effective work group, Building effective teams, Summary of required characteristics of effective teams, Factors influencing team effectiveness, Barriers to effective teamwork How not to set up an effective team, Stages of team development, What does it feel like to be working in teams at the different stages of development? Responding to the stages of development
Team leadership, Autocratic, consultative and participative management styles, Task, team and individual, Situational leadership, Determining appropriate styles, Modifying levels of maturity, Adjusting your style, Encouraging participation, Why participate? Barriers to participation, General strategies for overcoming barriers, Increasing participation, Motivating others
What are motives? Cultural differences, Motivating your team
Leadership qualities, Lack of motivation, Team visualisation
Team decision making, Decision making and teams, Types of decisions that groups make, Who makes the decisions?
Decision types, Decision-making approaches, Reasons for poor decision making, Groupthink remedies, Decision-making processes
Choosing between options, Assessing your decision-making effectiveness, Team-building, Strengthening the individual
Creating realistic development plans, Strategies for developing team members collectively, Simulated team-building exercises
Team-building, Goals, Strategies, Competencies, Gap analysis
Schedule, Vary the methodology, Allocate resources, Team briefings/meetings, A diversity of meeting styles, Methods of briefing, Guidelines for briefing sessions, Ten golden rules
Establishing team purpose and tasks, Team objectives
Reasons for not understanding objectives, Allocating tasks
Performance requirements, What is expected of your team?
Who are your team’s customers? Customer expectations
Success criteria and reviewing progress, Sharing criteria with other team members, Involving team members in monitoring performance, Recording performance effectively, Reviewing achievements and progress, Team review meetings, Planning for continuous improvement, Inter-team communication, Teams in the wider context – the value of effective networking, Teams and the ‘quality chain’ , Inter-team problems, Inter-team relationships
Managing conflict, Tactics, Resolving conflicts and disagreements, Coping with change through teamwork, The value of change, Introducing new members to the team
Winding down a team, Team health audit.